Main menu

Post navigation

Think It Through

A television program called “Think It Up” aired on all three major television stations this weekend.

The “Think It Up” website says it, “inspires public school students in grades 7-12 to pursue their passions through student-powered, teacher-led learning projects.” The site takes donations and sells merchandise.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is their major contributor.

In an article titled, “20% of New York State Students Opted Out of Standardized Tests This Year”, written for New York Today on AUG. 12, 2015, Elizabeth Harris states, “More than 200,000 third through eighth graders sat out New York’s standardized tests this year . . . a sign of increasing resistance to testing . . .

The number of students declining to take the exams quadrupled from the year before, and represented 20 percent of all those eligible to be tested, according to data from the State Education Department.”

Andrew Ujifusa of Education Week writes, “six vendors overall accounted for the bulk of the states’ $669 million of annual spending for tests required under the No Child Left Behind Act in grades 3-8 and once in high school. That spending amounted to $27 per student on average. Of all the contractors, the report says that New York City-based Pearson Education received the most money (39 percent), followed by McGraw-Hill Education, also in New York (14 percent), and the Maple Grove, Minn.-based Data Recognition Corp. (13 percent).”

Because of the Opt-Out Movement, the “hedgehogs” stand to loose a great deal of money, approximately $260 million dollars in New York State alone. Now they are trying to recuperate their money by asking private citizens to publically donate their money to a system of education that will provide SOME students with the education they deserve but only if they advocate for themselves.

Students in large urban districts where opt-out numbers are the lowest will, most likely, not take advantage of this opportunity.

It is clear that America understands what an excellent education should be.

All of America’s children deserve a developmentally appropriate, Arts based, experiential education that concentrates on discovering, developing, and directing their individual gifts and talents towards becoming knowledgeable, actively engaged citizens of these United States.